Psychology & Neuroscience Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for practitioners, researchers, and students in cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry. It only takes a minute to sign up.

Are there any statistics about what proportion of armed attackers are willing to hurt or kill as opposed only using their weapons as a threat? E.g. There were cases when a self-confident victim without any countermeasure (other than verbal and meta communication) forced the attacker to flee.
Which is more probable? Any studies about the topic?

$\begingroup$Every combat strategist knows that the best win is when you defeat the enemy with your mind. I suppose the study you seek would be a retrospective; probably quite clouded by how-far in the past the encounter occurred, the low quantity of such data being collected by a trained psychologist, and the infrequent reporting of such encounters$\endgroup$
– New AlexandriaNov 8 '13 at 14:19

$\begingroup$@NewAlexandria do you have any evidence to support this?$\endgroup$
– user10932Nov 8 '13 at 22:43